q6 Brewster on HoIbolVs Redfoll in Ne-v Englaiid. [April 



have overlooked some obscure record, to any portion of the 

 United States, specimens taken by Cooper at Quebec, being 

 apparently the most southern ones thus far reported. Some one 

 has lately said that we know more about the birds of our 

 remote western plains and mountains than of those which occur 

 nearer home, and it is, perhaps, idle to deny that such a charge 

 contains a grain of truth. At least the past decade has brought 

 many surprises to the student of New England ornithology and 

 it is not likely that the supply is exhausted. 



We now have an interesting development affecting New Eng- 

 land Red-polls. Among extensive series of y^giothi taken in 

 this vicinity, a small proportion — usually from five to eight per 

 cent — - will be found to differ from the ordinary type in being very 

 much larger, with stouter, less acute bills, generally darker color- 

 ing, and especially darker, coarser streaking beneath. These birds, 

 if I am not mistaken, are Holboll's Red-poll (yy^giothus linai-ia 

 holboelli)* . I have known them these fifteen years or more, as 

 regular, though never ver}^ common associates of the Lesser 

 Red-poll, during the latter's winter incursions,- a good-sized flock 

 of the common species being usually pretty sure to contain a 

 few of the larger kind. Previous to the present season they do 

 not seem to have occurred in any considerable numbers, but 

 during the past month (Februar}^ 18S3), they have been actually 

 abvindant near Boston, and, on several occasions, have been found 

 in flocks apart from the smaller species. 



I had an experience of this kind on February 19, when col- 

 lecting at Revere Beach in company with Mr. H. M. Spelman. 

 The day was cold and blustering and birds, as is usual at such 

 times, were exceedingly active and restless. Flocks of Red-polls 

 were continually passing, occasionally alighting among the seed- 

 bearing weeds, or clustering for a moment on the spire of an 

 isolated cedar, the next whirling off" as suddenly as they came. 

 Under such conditions it was impossible to identify all the indi- 

 viduals seen, but we satisfied ourselves that most of these flocks 

 were made up chiefly of the larger race, while one or two were 

 positively ascertained to contain only the smaller kind. Of the 

 twenty-one specimens actually taken thirteen proved to be yS. 

 holboelli. 



* In making this determination I take it for granted that authors are right in re- 

 ferring the American bird to AL. holboelli of Europe. 



